September 11

In September 1901, an angry young man from Cleveland shot and killed President William McKinley during a public engagement in Buffalo, New York. There was a word used for men who sought to disrupt a government they deemed evil by causing chaos and murder: anarchist. A hundred years later, angry young men from the Middle East boarded four different airplanes in the United States and crashed them into the two towers of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania. We found a different word: terrorist. Its been ten years since that day, a day when "the world stopped turning", when Americans experienced an attack on native soil that took the lives, not of soldiers entering battle, but of citizens, mothers and fathers going to work, then later, fire fighters and EMS workers, running into buildings that would fall to the ground to try to save lives. Its difficult for me to think about September 11th, to remember all the lives lost, and all the lives that have been lost since in our War of Terror. Especially when I still feel terrified, still afraid of an angry person who feels like there's nothing left to lose, and gives his life in a final act of terror. Most days here in quiet Canton, Ohio, there's no worry that someone will use us as an example to terrify the rest of the nation; that's what large cities like New York, Washington, DC, or even Cleveland have to fear. Also, since I'm not involved in the sale or use of crystal meth, I don't feel like my life is in immediate danger from our local criminal element. But I do worry about air travel, vacationing somewhere that an "underwear bomber" could target, or traveling overseas. Its scary to feel like my country of origin could make me the victim of terror, and I'm petrified of something happening to my children. Its not like this is a new problem that we've invented in the 21st century; murder, terror, assassination seem like key elements of human history. This weekend, I'm sad for the loved ones we have lost, and I'm sad for the innocence I lost ten years ago. I'm praying for peace.